Code-name S.T.E.A.M.!!!

This post is about a video game called Code-Name S.T.E.A.M.. In case you are wondering what "steam" stands for (because It should be obvious that it's an acronym) it supposedly stands for "Strike Team Eliminating the Alien Menace."


LOGO!!!

This game is interesting because first of all it takes place in a STEAM-punk world (see what I did there!?). In case you don't know, Steam-punk is a rarely used style/genre of science fiction featuring less advanced tech than what is normally seen in science fiction. Normally involving STEAM.

Basically the premise is alien invaders are making a mess of the planet. Abraham Lincoln (yes, Abraham Lincoln. Just go with it) assembles a strike team of characters from American Literature and folklore (and for some strange reason, the Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz) to fix things. And they have steam-punk weapons and armor. While this may seem like a half baked mash-up of desperate ideas on paper, it's surprisingly well executed in action.

Now for gameplay. This game is a turn-based 3rd Person Shooter. Your characters (you have a total of four in battle at once). All the characters in the game are wearing steam-powered suits of armor, and the steam is the in-game reason why combat is turn based. Every step consumes one unit of steam, while attacking uses between 2-5 units of steam. Having leftover steam at the end of your turn means your characters will shoot enemies on sight in the middle of THEIR turn (this is called Over-Watch Mode). However they can do the same to you. Furthermore every character has special move they can use once per level that 99% of the time is a screen-nuke.



Oh, and all the playable characters are from American folklore. Which is funny to me because I just LOVE watching Tom Sawyer and the Cowardly Lion beat the living snot out of alien invaders.

Speaking of which here is a list of characters.


Henry Fleming from the Red Badge of
Courage!



The Lion from Wizard of Oz!



Tiger Lily form Peter Pan!



Abraham Lincoln! (the only character who is
NOT based off folklore as Abe was a real
person in American history)



Tom Sawyer!


And there are a few more characters BUT another set of characters are exclusively off limits unless you bought some of those "Amiibo" figures that Nintendo and Game-stop are selling. In other words, Nintendo Skylanders (P.S. Spyro is dead because of Skylanders. I want a REAL Spyro Game! Not a game that happens to have Spyro in it!).



Fire Emblem Characters!

Marth, Ike Robin, and Lucina are all playable in Code-Name S.T.E.A.M.! In case you don't know, Fire Emblem is a turn-based strategy game made by Intelligent Games, who are also making Code-Name S.T.E.A.M.. But you cannot play as them unless you have the appropriate figurine. That is how NFC should be used in my opinion. Don't make them mandatory but make them required to unlock bonuses. Skylanders makes the figurines mandatory at all times and Disney Infinity doesn't even take advantage of NFC as there's no real reason to switch characters.

But enough about that. If you want to learn more about this game, please go to the official website. Also I apologize if you never heard of any of these characters because they are from American literature. But I am going to be honest, I never heard of any of these characters with the exception of Tom Sawyer, Abraham Lincoln, and the Cowardly Lion and I am American. So yeah. Learn something new every day!